Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT) based agroforestry for sustainable upland farming

The review was conducted on Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT) and used multipurposetrees sustainable production for upland farming. The SALT proved an excellent agroforestry-basedapproach to combat soil erosion, restore soil fertility, and enhance productivity on sloping anddegraded uplands. Originally developed in the Philippines during the 1970s, SALT integrates contourhedgerows of leguminous shrubs with strips of annual and perennial crops, offering a sustainablesolution to land degradation in upland regions. The system’s ecological foundation is reinforcedthrough adaptations such as livestock integration, orchard development, agroforest establishment,and organic nutrient cycling. The paper explores four distinct SALT models SALT-1 through SALT-4each with unique land-use combinations tailored for agriculture, forestry, livestock, andhorticulture. Key components such as contour farming, alley cropping, composting, and waterconservation structures synergistically improve soil health, water retention, and biodiversity. Theadaptability, low cost, and ecological sustainability of SALT make it particularly relevant forsmallholder farmers in tropical regions. However, challenges such as labor requirements, delayedeconomic returns, land tenure insecurity, and limited extension support remains barriers to wideradoption. By aligning traditional knowledge with agro-ecological principles, SALT emerges as aholistic model for climate-resilient, low-input, and community-driven upland farming systems.